Chairman Grubbe: Focus should be water quality

For decades, the Desert Water Agency and Coachella Valley Water District have wasted and polluted the Coachella Valley’s water resources. Their irresponsible management has put the future of the Valley’s aquifer in grave peril. In 2013, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians filed a federal lawsuit seeking a declaration of its federal water rights and an injunction to protect the Valley’s groundwater. Instead of working with the Tribe to find a solution, the water districts have wasted more than $2 million of ratepayer money on a lawsuit that they could have avoided.

The Tribe spent two decades trying to address these water contamination issues in a collaborative spirit and without a costly legal battle. In response, the water districts simply said “there is little to discuss.” Their refusal to come to the table and address our legitimate concerns forced Agua Caliente to assert its legal rights in an effort to stop the continued overdrafting of the aquifer and degradation of the quality of existing groundwater.

Litigation was the Tribe’s last resort, and it should not have been necessary. Under long-settled federal law, the United States’ establishment of Agua Caliente’s Reservation in 1876 included the reservation of sufficient water to assure the Reservation is a viable and prosperous home for the Agua Caliente people.

Several legal decisions in the federal courts have confirmed that Agua Caliente holds these groundwater rights. Most recently, on June 7, 2017, the federal district court ruled that further delay in the case “would prejudice the Tribe and unfairly advantage the water agencies by permitting their ongoing disregard of the Tribe’s rights. The Tribe has provided ample evidence of the water agencies’ overdrafting of the aquifer and impairment of the Tribe’s crucial water resource. As such, the Court is persuaded that further delay in quantifying the Tribe’s water rights and the resulting continued degradation of such rights under these circumstances is unwarranted.”

Since this ruling, CVWD and DWA have complained that proceeding with the Tribe’s lawsuit while they seek Supreme Court review of the existing rulings threatens to waste rate payer resources. This is an interesting position for the water districts to take when, as reported by the Desert Sun, they have chosen to spend $2.3 million on legal fees rather than swallow their pride and sit down with the Tribe to seriously discuss tribal rights to groundwater.

Unfortunately, this type of stubborn and irresponsible fiscal behavior is standard procedure for CVWD and DWA. We encourage all water users to look closely at the extraordinary pay and other benefits to CVWD and DWA executives, the inexplicable waste in the water exchange with Metropolitan Water District, and the setting of rate schedules that directly benefit water district board members.

At the end of the day, the focus should really be on water quantity and quality. All the money in the world will not magically create clean water in a compromised aquifer or replace the groundwater if the aquifer is depleted. If the water districts spent more time focusing on the water rather than lining their pockets, residents of the Valley would not be in this position.

Enough is enough. It’s time to roll up our sleeves and work together on a well-conceived plan for how water should be valued, managed and used in the Coachella Valley.

Jeff L. Grubbe was elected chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians in June 2012. Email him at tribalgovernment@aguacaliente.net.